UNEXPECTED DRAW

12 May 2018

The 10th round of China Super League was not easy to Tianjin Quanjian. Paulo Sousa’s squad fought hard to keep the scoreboard advantage against Shandong Luneng this saturday (12), in Haihe Educational Football Stadium. But the match was a 1-1 draw. The portuguese manager made some changes in his starting eleven, but the name of the team was Alexandre Pato.

The visitors dominated the first half. With more ball possession, the Xiaopeng Li ‘ squad pushed forward relentlessly. At the minute 11, they advanced by the left flank in a dangerous attack, but the goalkeeper saved. Three minutes later, Diego Tardelli stole the ball in the area, passed it, received again and shot to Zhang Lu defense. Quanjian reacted with a Pato’s diagonal shot. Almost in the end, Mi Haolun passed to Pato, that failed to put his kick on target.

In the second half, the game was more balanced. Despite of the 59% ball possession of Shandong Luneng, both teams had dangerous opportunities. At the minute 58, Diego Tardelli leaded a dangerous attack, but Zhang Lu defended the kick. Two minutes later, Quanjin scared the visitors with a diagonal shot from Axel Witsel. The goal was at 68 minutes: Alexandre Pato passed through two defenders and scored with no chance for the goalkeeper. Luneng looked for an equaliser until the last minutes. In stoppage time, Wang Dalei, the adversary goalkeeper, headed the ball to Pelle that controlled it and and tied the match.

The result frustrated the Tianjin Quanjin supporters, that was already celebrating the victory when the visitors scored. However, it proved the strength of Paulo Sousa’ squad, that played as equals the 2nd team of the championship table. The next China Super League game will be against Shanghai Shenhua in the upcoming sunday, at home again.